The nuts and bolts of B2B content creation – a guide for marketers

B2B marketers are under constant pressure to create a steady stream of valuable and relevant content. The widely touted benefits are attractive to anyone who’s eager to grow their business. But seeing the ROI from content marketing takes time and consistency, and anyone hoping to double their revenue overnight will be disappointed.

This post aims to give some insight into the critical components for successful content marketing. It is by no means an exhaustive guide, rather more of a starting point for B2B marketers. This is based on both my own personal experiences and learnings. I’ve included some awesome resources from some of the best content creators and authorities.

Let’s begin…

Determine your overall goals

One of the first steps in the content creation process is to decide what your goal is for your content – this is also often referred to as your ‘Editorial Mission’.

Knowing your strengths can help you identify key messages around which to base content, and helps with consistency.

Remember, your pricing does not have to necessarily be the lowest to differentiate yourself. Think about the service or experience you provide customers.

Content formats

Before you dive into content creation, it’s important to have an understanding of the formats available. Some content will be better suited to your content strategy than others.

These are some of the most common types of content:

Blog posts

The best blogs answer common questions its audience has. If you’re consistently creating content that’s helpful for your target market, it’ll help establish you as an authority.

Blog posts can also fuel your social media marketing, nurture campaigns, and help with SEO. Of course, the effectiveness of your content has a direct correlation to its quality. If you’re pumping out shite, expect shite results.

One of the best things about blogging is that it’s cheap (it’s mainly just an investment of your time), and you can publish new stuff quickly and easily.

A blogging platform is simple to set up. I’m partial to the self-hosted WordPress option (where a third-party service does the hosting). I personally use GoDaddy, which costs just a few bucks a month for sites like this one. You can scale up as needed.

Visual content

Visual content can be photos, videos, infographics, slide decks and GIFs, among other things. Visual content is popular because it’s easy for people to consume and doesn’t a huge time commitment. It’s a powerful way to tell stories if done well, and can notch up a decent amount of shares on social channels.

Everyone loves a good GIF.

Podcasts

Podcasts have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. A podcast is kinda like your own radio station. People can subscribe and listen to episodes wherever they are, whenever they please, on just about any device. Like visual content, podcasts are easy to consume, especially if you’re on the move. You can listen to them while driving, on your commute, at your desk or anywhere else.

Podcasts are easy to consume.

While podcasts are great, it’s worth noting that they require an ongoing commitment. Most professionals produce one new episode each week, running anywhere from 15-60 minutes. This might sound easy, but it’s a lot of time to fill if you want to perpetually deliver quality content to your listeners.

To plan, organise and track your content marketing, you want to have a structured approach.

Editorial calendars vary, and content creators have different preferences based on what works best for them. Some prefer the spreadsheet format, but if you’re more of a visual person (like me), you may opt for a tool like Trello.

Trello is intuitive and easy to use. It’s free tier is more than sufficient for most, especially if you’re in the early stages of your content marketing. If you’re a bit further along, you can unlock more features and functions with the paid plans.

I prefer Trello to manage my editorial calendar.

A few things to consider when filling out your editorial calendar:

Establish themes

Even if your themes are broad, they will still help keep you focused and your content on track. Themes are also a great way to keep track of how much content you have produced in specific areas.

Tip: If you use Trello, the coloured labels can be customised and assigned to correspond to your chosen themes.

Assign due dates

Putting dates on things keeps you accountable for delivering them. Be realistic and factor in a bit of a buffer for those unforeseen circumstances.

Tip: If you use Trello, cards with due dates will be visible in the calendar view. You can also export your Trello calendar to Outlook, which comes in handy.

Assign responsibilities

People need to know what they have to deliver and by when. Make sure people know what they are responsible for.

Tip: By assigning responsibilities in Trello cards, it is easy for people to keep track of things. They can also be notified of any updates and changes.

Repurpose

Your blood, sweat and tears from hours, days and weeks of creating stellar content doesn’t have to fizzle out. You can reap the rewards over and over again by repurposing content in different formats. Everyone does it, and it’s not cheating or being lazy.

According to Copyblogger, on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.

Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a compelling promise that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist.